1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related generally to a data processing system and in particular to a method and apparatus for automatic virtual world construction. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for dynamically generating a customized virtual world responsive to a query.
2. Description of the Related Art
A virtual world, also referred to as a virtual universe, metaverse, or “3D Internet”, is a computer-based simulated environment hosted on a server over the Internet. Examples of virtual universes include, without limitation, Second Life™, Entropia Universe®, The Sims Online™, EverQuest™, Ultima Online™, Lineage™, and World of Warcraft™. Virtual worlds are typically represented using three-dimensional (3-D) graphics and landscapes.
Virtual worlds are multiuser environments. Thousands of users may populate a virtual world simultaneously. When a virtual world server becomes too busy due to the number of users accessing a virtual world hosted on the server, the virtual world server may be able to spawn a copy of that virtual world on a second server. This copy of the virtual world on the second server is referred to herein as a “shard”. The virtual world server may then transfer some of the users of the virtual world to the shard on the second server. Typically the number of servers and the maximum number of shards that may be made available to users is fixed.